Walking into school on Jan. 13, I was expecting it to be a phone-less, lifeless, and awful next semester. I mean how was I supposed to function without mindlessly scrolling on my phone when I was supposed to be doing school work?  Although when I walked into school I noticed no difference, honestly, where was the ominous music and phone-deprived teenagers? It was almost exactly before break except no phone-cubbies. So this leads to the question: is the phone ban really that bad or are we over-exaggerating? 

    Pause, before you judge, I’m not agreeing that the phone ban will magically make everything better. I will admit I love to scroll on

Instagram and text my friends instead of doing work more than anyone, but not having my phone for 6 hrs and 45 mins hasn’t made me go crazy. 

    I personally feel that without my teachers constantly telling students to “get off their phones,” they seemed more prone to answer my questions. This does mean I spend less time sitting there confused and more time actually doing something. 

    Chemistry teacher Zachary Rhodenizer gives his opinion on the ban by emphasizing the positive effects.

    “I think the roll-out has been pretty smooth. I think it shows more positives than negatives and good overall for the school,” Rhodenizer said.

    A point I feel should be brought up is the honestly pitiful excuse that the reason we can’t have our phones out during lunches to “ talk to our peers,”. Who wants to talk when you have such a short amount of time to eat and when you’ve been talking for how long?

    A sore subject is definitely about the no phones during lunches rule, but what about during breaks?  I think that not having phones out in the hallways has definitely helped with the traffic, I haven’t seen anybody walk into a wall because they were looking at their phones this year. Not having phones has helped students be more productive because it gives time to do work. 

     Junior Lillian Woody shares what differences she has seen since the policy.  

    “I also see that teachers are taking up all of class time now. Students are also using their time better by doing homework and other assignments during their free time,”  Woody said.

    In the poll taken, about 75% of people said they didn’t find the policy helpful and 13 of those people didn’t answer why. In most of the

responses to the question: “what has changed?”  people expressed why they didn’t like the policy calling it “annoying” and an “inconvenience”, but these aren’t drastic harmful effects. The poll taken about if people agree with the policy and if the policy has actually  helped were different, not by a lot, but some people said they didn’t like the policy but then they said it helped.

    Senior Alexander Miller shares his opinion on how the ban has affected the school.

    “I feel like there is much less chaos as people are not caught up in whatever new ridiculous online controversy is occurring,” Miller said.

    Whether you use your phone to play block blast or text your friends, the thought of not having it during school may seem painfully impossible, but has it been that bad? I know that I still wish I could be on my phone but, after a couple days I have learned it’s honestly not that bad.